The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-07-08
FRUIT IN

BNttG IN StM0IB.
Ligitness is the first essential alike III
the food and drink taken in warm weather.
There is then less work to be done, less
waste of tissue, less need Of the pre-emi-
nently muscle-forming and heat producing
substances meat and bread; and fruit, as
being both palatable and easily obtainable
is much in use. It's advantages are that it
provides a seasonable change Of diet, light
and wholesome if well chosen, and a paIa-
table tonic and stimulant of digestion and
aperient properties. There are few who
cannot enjoy it in one form or another.
For diabetes, the only least desirable
kinds, as certain nuts and almonds, are
available, all others, rs containing sugar,
are forbidden. Sufferers from acid dys-
pepsia must select carefully, and limit
their consumption to the least irritating
"a few Strawberries or a few grapes.
Diarrhoa and dysentery preclude the use
of all fruit. On the other hand. for con-
stipated persons it is sometimes the only
reliable remedy which they can use con-
~tinuously with comfort; it is also of be1e-
fit in renal diseases, by its action on the
bowels. Atomic persons generally take it
well, and feel the better for its digestive
property. Those in normal health may
eat almost any ripe fruit. The bland
varieties are the most wholesome aud
nutritious = Strawberries, apples, pears,
fspa, ag and rr1nca1.app,.a Tho I.pl Ya,na1
however, with currants and rasperries, are
less wholesome than the others. Stone
traits are apt to disagree with the stomach;
but the more watery, as peaches and large
plums, are better than the smaller aud
drier, as apricots and damsons. The pulp
of oranges renders them heavy. Among
other foreign fruits, bananas are whole
some. Dried fruits, aud the skin of fruits
in general, are indigestible. Nuts, the
edible part OF which is really the seed.
contain much albnmen and some fat in a
condensed form, and are particularly diff
cult of digestion. Fruit may be taken with
a meal or d an empty stomach. In
the former case it promotes digestion
by its gently irritating effect on the
muenos membrane of the stomach and in
testine. Ifan aperient effect is desired it
had better be taken in the morning before
breakfast or between meals. A sucenlent
and pleasantly acid variety is best for
both Of these purposes while it is also A
food. The quantity of fruit which should
be taken depends on the kind. If it
belongs to the bland nutritious class, a
healthy person may now and then partake
of it as freely as of any other wholesome
food; but he will gain most benefit if he
takes only 4 little, and takes it regularly.
The same may be said of the invalid with
whom fruit agrees. Cooking removes
much of the acidy from crnde fruit and
renders it Tighter as well as more p~alatable.
So treated. it is productive Of good and no
harm; but it is a fundamental principle
that whatever fruit is eaten uneooked must
be fully ripe, and not overripe. This may
sound trite, and, indeed, the principal is
commonly admitted; but not, it would
seem. by all, for We still find people, and
not a few, who will themselves deliberate
ly take, and worse, give to their children,
green apples, green gooseberries, etc, the
very hardness of which, apart from their
acid pungency, suggest their unfitness for
digestion. Such people use as food an acid
irritant poison, whose necessary action is
to cause excessive intestinal secretion, with
more or less of inflammation. Hence arises
diarrhea. On the other hand, fruit which
is overripe, hi which fermentation has
begun, is a frequent cause of his disorder
and equally to be avoided, and perhaps
also more difficult to avoid, because the in
! sidious beginning of decay is not easily rec
| oenized. 1t should never be forgotten by
any who incline to follow the season in
their feeding, that the want of such pre-
cautions as the above may produce that
dysinterie form of diarrhoa, "British
cholera which is occasionally as rapidly
fatal as the more dreaded Asiatic type Of
that disease.-Brihsh Medical Journal.